Kennedy Yanko is an American artist based in Brooklyn (New York). She develops a unique sculptural approach to painting. Her works catch our gaze with their physical presence and duality.
In 2019 the artist began to name the paint element of the works « Paint skin ». From then on Yanko seems to personify the material. Now the embodied paint appears worked as the leather would be. From this point the artist enters into close collaboration with the material. Folded, rolled or stuck, acrylic reveals new functions and characteristics.
By associating thick paint skin with marble, metal or glass Kennedy Yanko’ sculptures offer optical illusions by blurring the nature of the different materials. In her statement the artist explains the deep link with the fundamental behavior of atoms, in which their context informs their presentation. By exploring the realities of materials in their deepest natures, La Nouvelle Danse shows up once again. Furthermore the relationship between paint and raw materials brings us back to the essential links between movement and statics, rigidity and flexibility. Subjects and disciplines enter into intimate dialogues.
Paint now having a weight or even a length and a depth (palpable thickness) Kennedy Yanko gives acrylic some life and a physical presence. In her serie « Element and skin » (2017/2018) we observe poured marbled skin. These mottles are movements of paint captured in time. They evoke the metamorphism and transformations undergone by the rock over time due to changes in temperature, pressure, chemical composition or even the nature of mineralized fluids. This invites us to (re)think about the questions of Space and Time which are key elements for the artists of the Nouvelle Danse. By drawing inspiration from the movements present around us, which we do not necessarily perceive, artists redefine reality in art.
To go back in time, Kennedy Yanko’s “pour” remind us without hesitation Lynda Benglis’s “Latex pour”. Lynda Benglis is a leading American artist of the 1960s to whom La Nouvelle Danse owes part of its heritage.
Yanko invites us to invest realities outside of those already known. Indeed this approach to painting is not common to our eyes, accustomed to a « traditional » use of this medium. Broadening points of view by exploring new horizons is a signature for all artists of the Nouvelle Danse.
Elsa Duault
Pivot, 2018, Kennedy Yanko, 60x48X48in
Anchor, Kenney Yanko, 2019, 14×12,5x12in
Disappear, Kenny Yanko, 2020, 76x23x15in
KENNEDY YANKO (1988)
Embodied painting
Kennedy Yanko is an American artist based in Brooklyn (New York). She develops a unique sculptural approach to painting. Her works catch our gaze with their physical presence and duality.
In 2019 the artist began to name the paint element of the works « Paint skin ». From then on Yanko seems to personify the material. Now the embodied paint appears worked as the leather would be. From this point the artist enters into close collaboration with the material. Folded, rolled or stuck, acrylic reveals new functions and characteristics.
By associating thick paint skin with marble, metal or glass Kennedy Yanko’ sculptures offer optical illusions by blurring the nature of the different materials. In her statement the artist explains the deep link with the fundamental behavior of atoms, in which their context informs their presentation. By exploring the realities of materials in their deepest natures, La Nouvelle Danse shows up once again. Furthermore the relationship between paint and raw materials brings us back to the essential links between movement and statics, rigidity and flexibility. Subjects and disciplines enter into intimate dialogues.
Paint now having a weight or even a length and a depth (palpable thickness) Kennedy Yanko gives acrylic some life and a physical presence. In her serie “Element and skin” (2017/2018) we observe poured marbled skin. These mottles are movements of paint captured in time. They evoke the metamorphism and transformations undergone by the rock over time due to changes in temperature, pressure, chemical composition or even the nature of mineralized fluids. This invites us to (re)think about the questions of Space and Time which are key elements for the artists of the Nouvelle Danse. By drawing inspiration from the movements present around us, which we do not necessarily perceive, artists redefine reality in art.
To go back in time, Kennedy Yanko’s “pour” remind us without hesitation Lynda Benglis’s “Latex pour”. Lynda Benglis is a leading American artist of the 1960s to whom La Nouvelle Danse owes part of its heritage.
Yanko invites us to invest realities outside of those already known. Indeed this approach to painting is not common to our eyes, accustomed to a “traditional” use of this medium. Broadening points of view by exploring new horizons is a signature for all artists of the Nouvelle Danse.
https://kennedyyanko.com/
Elsa Duault
